New Dedicated Line - Almost No improvement

Just read the last two posts before mine - thanks Jerry and skoc. It sounds like there may not be more to do. As mentioned above I may try a PSM 156 for the 45 day trial and see how that goes. Sinking a lot of $ into the new house though so this isn't at the top of the list (like room treatment is).

Have thought about battery backup and will take another look.

Thanks All! My amp is a Primaluna Evo 300 integrated with tubes rolled. Power cord is a LessLoss entropic and also use that cord for my phonostage (ModWright 9.0x). 95% of my listening is vinyl. I also have a LessLoss speaker firewall(s).

What I have learned - which may be incorrect - from reading many threads and posts about power/line conditioners is it really depends on how dirty your power is. For someone in an old apartment in NYC with hair dryers being used all around them will have dirtier power than someone in a more suburban or even rural area (depending on those conditions). The house we left was at the foothills of the Appalachian mountains and we had our own transformer. I don't know if that helped or not but as mentioned the EMI reading was pretty low coming out of an outlet which was not a dedicated line. I think (!) this is why power conditioners make a big impact for some and not for others – depending on their system and listening preferences of course.

I've read more positive reviews about the Puritan PSM 156 more than any other (below $5k) and have been considering one of those but wanted to start with clean power to begin with so one isn't needed. Hopefully I would be able to plug in the Evo, phonostage and TT because I can’t stomach buying two of them – one for the Evo and one for the other stuff (and 2 of those would cost more than my Evo). I googled Running Springs Audio and not seeing anything recent for them and the company link was dead (unless a bad link). One of the P156 dealers has a 45 day trial period which is another reason I’m thinking more and more about one of those.

I’ll check out the panel later today and see what other stuff is on that side of the panel but not sure I will be able to do much about that – maybe we can move things around.

Thanks again. If I make any improvements here that are worthwhile I will update this thread.

Wow, great replies – and even more varying opinions than I thought there would be. My hobby (although it is fading a bit I must admit) is racing my car and when I first started I had lots of questions and would get a similar amount of different replies. I’ll do now what I did then – read them all and consider them all, do more research and do what I think will apply the most to my situation and be the most beneficial with the budget at hand (that is unclear after spending a whole lot over the past 6 weeks on the new house) and limited time I have to listen - that is for another thread but hifi room is the living room and is open to the rest of the house and wife really doesn’t like loud anything or more importantly what she perceives to be loud. I’m looking forward to her finding her new hair salon, yoga studio etc. which is the only time I can go much above 70 db (if that) for any length of time. In the old house I had the basement and even though it wasn’t sound proofed well I could listen to music hours on end w/o issue. I told her I need to start home shopping for a second home nearby so I can listen to my stereo. Anyway….

 

Good point on the full space vs. tandem breaker (and I have no idea what those are but will google). The stereo took the last available breaker in the box so probably a tandem or split. This is a good time to learn more about this and will go down this road to see what the deal is. Thanks bikeboy.

 

Tennisdoc – Even though I had clean power in my old house it was inconsistent and we had brownouts often. I kept all of my electronics on these: https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B000FBK3QK/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1 , which, on a youtube vid somewhere saw it had a clean sinewave, esp compared to other UPS’s. The (apparently worthless) EMI meter was only 2 points worse but did take some of the sparkle out of listening so I started unplugging all my gear (not much really) when I stopped a listening session and plug in when started back up the next day or so. Maybe there is a lesson there. Someone mentioned whole house battery back up in this thread (vs a generator which I had at the last house which I’m pretty sure was dirty power but also there was a 20 second delay) so I’ll also look at that but that power could be not-so-great also. hmmm.

 

Theaudioamp – good questions. I have done very little listening so far – mostly because of the wife-factor but also time – I haven’t had time to set up my cart yet so only have CDs. I have a Ruby K1 which I read is a good cd player but my vinyl blows away 90% of my CDs. I did just listen to Murder by Numbers (just found out this song was never released on vinyl) fairly loud so I could pay attention. I should have picked a different song or CD rather because there aren’t any extended quiet sections (silent passages). I’ll have to report back after I mount and align my cart and then will put on the Wall which has lots of quiet time. Right now I’m prepping the room as much as possible…doing what I can.

 

I didn’t search out the Rhodium – I just searched for outlets with good reviews. Maybe not so great but IIRC at $250 ea. I doubt I will be replacing them.

 

GHD – I’ll post some pics tomorrow in userID. Still have to unpack all of my records and cds (except a few), curtains just came today (not hung – 3 glass sliding doors on the front wall) and although I have a rug pad, I’m still waiting on the rug. After I get power straight (and maybe there isn’t much to do) I will start work on room treatment but also getting resistance from wife there also. Sigh. There is an echo, echo, echo here w/ an open floor plan and tile floors – and sliding glass doors.

 

I have read that more than a few people were able to plug their amps into their Puritan 156 so again with the 45 day trial period I think I may give it a shot.

 

I’ll do more research on what I have now in the breaker box/line and then will think about another line. As mentioned above the hifi outlets (2) were the last breaker anyway. However, the pool is getting a heater in a few months so that will have to go somewhere.

 

Sorry if I didn’t address everyone’s posts. I’ve read them all and will again – and again.

About 35 minutes on the outlets - thanks will check it out.

Posted a few pics in virtual systems for those interested. Again, still very much setting up the room as you can see. Thanks.

RE: outlet burn-in. Interesting and I had no idea. As a newbie I think burn in is the most annoying thing about this hobby (wife issues aside). I'll just leave them in because ......although I have about 180 hours on my Sapphire M3s and about 90 hours on the tweeters (had to replace those after too much volume) I'm reading again and again on Audio Circle that they really need 500 hours so I've got a ways to go before those are burned in anyway. That said, if I wanted to speed up the process I could remove one at a time and run my PC through it that I'm on all day at work.

RE: Spouse and dedicated room. We have a 4 BR home, mbr, office, wife's office and yoga room and lastly a spare BR. So they are all taken. My plan is that she usually stops watching tv around 9:30 PM and then spends 2 hours doing chick stuff. If I'm not buried at work I will be able to listen from 9:30-11:30 once (!!!) I sound proof the MBR door some wich of course leads out to the LR/stereo room. I figure once I sound proof the door (as much as possible) i can at least listen at 70 db which is fine. Then when she leaves for doctor or hair or yoga the volume will immediately go up to 85-90 db which is where i usually like it.

RE: the topic of this thread :) , so many opinions (which of course is fine and the reason I created it) that I'll have to spend some more time sorting through them. I do want to look at a few things mentioned and will be discussing with my electrician and will also read ditusa'a link. I been slammed at work today (with a ways to go) so I haven't had a chance to look in the breaker box again but will do so. 

RE: impact of SQ - I was just reading my EMI reading for the dedicated outlet vs. the regular outlets and not seeing much of a change. May or may not affect SQ. In an earlier post someone made a good point about this when listening to quieter passages - which I will do once I mount my cart and will put on the Wall or DSOTM or Abaraxis (sp) - there is a long list to choose from.

Thanks again all. I appreciate your time and expertise. As mentioned I will go through all of these a few times – especially this weekend when I have more time for it to sink in and look at the panel/breaker box. Will also discuss w/ my electrician.  

 

 

Hi cdc, I discussed this some in this post: "Theaudioamp – good questions. I have done very little listening so far – mostly because of the wife-factor but also time – I haven’t had time to set up my cart yet so only have CDs. I have a Ruby K1 which I read is a good cd player but my vinyl blows away 90% of my CDs. I did just listen to Murder by Numbers (just found out this song was never released on vinyl) fairly loud so I could pay attention. I should have picked a different song or CD rather because there aren’t any extended quiet sections (silent passages). I’ll have to report back after I mount and align my cart and then will put on the Wall which has lots of quiet time. Right now I’m prepping the room as much as possible…doing what I can."

I just ordered some Focal Stellias which will be here later next week and hopefully I will have time to mount my cart and do some serious listening.

On that note, I haven't had much time to investigate some of the great suggestions in this thread but wanted to give this info which is my panel box. I was going to uplaod a pic but don't see how that is possible here w/o a link.

Anyway here is the list of stuff on the right side:

39. Stereo

37. Garage USBs (never use these)

33 & 31, Mini split (garage a/c which I only run when I'm in the garage)

29 clothes washer

27, mbr something or other

25 mbr powder room

23 mbr, something or other

21 DR and LR

19 garage door openers

17 master bath and study 

15 utility room and spare brs 2 & 3

13, outlets for garage, outdoor and pool

11 heat

9 heat

7 range

5 range

3 air

1 I think it says "conditioner Leed 20-A"

I'm not sure why heat has 2 switches and air has 1. We are in Tampa and have a single hvac unit. As mentioned earier the EMI reader jumps 100 points when the a/c is running so I'm thinking to maybe move the stereo switch to the other side (?). The other side has the washer and dryer but those can be stopped while listening (a/c cannot down here). Also the hot water heater is on the otehr side. Maybe I should move some of these aroudn so the bigger draws are on one side and the stereo switch is on the side of the smaller draws? 

The electrian will be here on Weds for other stuff but by then I will have a list of questions for him from the posts here and hopefully we can come up with somehing. 

But if not - as pointed out - an EMI reading is apparently worthless and I may not even notice the sound. We've only been here 3 weeks and still unpacking so have had little free time - but that should change some in the next few weeks when all these other projects and unpacking. is finsihed.